Malin’s intrinsic value per share drops 36% as key investment slides

Malin Corporation, the State-backed life sciences investment company, said on Wednesday that its estimated intrinsic value per share slumped 36 per cent between February and June as a key company in its portfolio saw its shares slide on Wall Street.

Shares in Poseida, the Nasdaq-listed clinical stage biopharma company in which Malin holds a 12 per cent stake, lost more than three-quarters of their value over the period, against the backdrop of challenging capital markets for biotech companies and Japanese drugmaker Takeda walking away from a gene therapy collaboration.

Poseida subsequently raised $50 million (€46.6 million) from Tokyo-based Astellas Pharmacy in August, which is expected to leave the company with enough money to fund its operations into early 2025.

Meanwhile, another important investee company, Mycovia, formerly known as Viamet, has seen its limited approval last year in the US for an antifungal treatment result in delayed or curtailed commercial launches of the product, affecting its value. Malin has a 15 per cent interest in Mycovia.

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Malin’s estimated intrinsic value of its shares of €6.49 at the end of June compared to its last publicly disclosed value of €10.07 in mid-February. Shares in the company are currently trading in Dublin at about €4.40.

Malin, in which the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (Isif) holds an 11.3 per cent stake, will see its chief executive of four years, Darragh Lyons, leave the company next month, with leadership moving to Fiona Dunlevy, who has been company secretary for more than five years, and chairman Liam Daniel, who is becoming executive chair.

Mr Lyons oversaw a significant return of cash to shareholders while at the helm, as Malin sold down various investments.

The company returned €140 million to investors earlier this year by way of a so-called tender offer share buyback, after selling its entire stake in US-listed biotech Immunicore in 2022 for €145 million.

“We currently hold cash of €31.4 million which will be used to fund the company’s operations, including the possible investment of additional capital into Malin’s remaining assets if attractive investment opportunities arise or if it is determined that additional capital will help advance the investee company towards a value inflection point or realisation opportunity,” Mr Lyons said in Malin’s interim report.

“The company remains committed to returning the excess capital of the business to shareholders.”

In the coming months, the company may deploy up to €5 million to buy back shares from the market, it said.